Alibaba is the world's biggest e-commerce trader, it sells more than double the combined sales of Amazon and e-Bay put together. The 11th of November is know as Singles' Day in China, and Alibaba have turned it into a Black Friday style day of sales.

The company reported sales of $1 billion in 17 minutes and $2 billion in just over an hour. After 14 hours that figure had risen to more than $5.9 billion, already past last year's total of $5.75 billion.

Sales are expected to grow by over 40 percent this year and pass $8 billion. Back in 2012 total total sales were $3.14 billion.

The day was originally invented by students in the 1990's to celebrate single life, it was a kind of 'anti-Valentines Day'. The holiday is celebrated on November 11th because the date, 11/11 is said to resemble 'bare branches' a Chinese expression for bachelors. 

Singles Day has particular resonance in the country as males outnumber females by more than 34 million. Alibaba latched on to the holiday and turned it into an annual day of sales. Other retailers have followed suit, including Amazon's Chinese site. 

These massive sales come against the backdrop of slowing economic activity in China, this are reflective of how well Alibaba is performing. The company recently indicated that new mobile users had been driving the company's growth and 45 percent of the morning's purchases were made on mobile devices.

Last year on November 11th Xiaomi's inexpensive, stylish, Chinese smartphones were the site's biggest sellers.

When it went public earlier this year Alibaba had a valuation that was higher than Facebook's.